Cannot enable Wifi - Alienware 17 / Atheros QCA6174

Hello all, I've just installed Garuda for the first time on my Alienware 17 R3 laptop but am unable to enable the wifi device, despite being able to detect it. Bluetooth and ethernet work just fine, and wifi has not been an issue before Garuda. I have linux-firmware installed yet I believe I am having a driver-based issue with my Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 32). All help appreciated!

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6th-9th Gen Core Processor PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 530 (rev 06)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 07)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 31)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family Thermal Subsystem (rev 31)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 31)
00:17.0 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] (rev 31)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f1)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #6 (rev f1)
00:1c.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #7 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM170 Chipset LPC/eSPI Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family Power Management Controller(rev 31)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family SMBus (rev 31)
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204M [GeForce GTX 970M] (rev a1)
3b:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2400 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
3c:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 32)
3d:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5227 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)

Output of inxi -Fxxxz and rfkill list (as text) please.

Also, make sure you have tried the two standard Arch kernels (linux and linux-lts).

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inxi -Fxxxz output

System:    Kernel: 5.11.16-zen1-1-zen x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.21.5 
tk: Qt 5.15.2 info: latte-dock wm: kwin_x11 vt: 2 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda Linux 
base: Arch Linux 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Alienware product: Alienware 17 R3 v: 1.3.6 serial: <filter> Chassis: 
type: 10 serial: <filter> 
Mobo: Alienware model: Alienware 17 R3 v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Alienware v: 1.3.6 
date: 08/05/2016 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT1 charge: 83.7 Wh (100.0%) condition: 83.7/96.5 Wh (86.8%) volts: 16.4 min: 14.4 
model: COMPAL PABAS0241231 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-6700HQ bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake-S rev: 3 cache: 
L2: 6 MiB 
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 41599 
Speed: 3270 MHz min/max: 800/3500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3270 2: 3270 3: 3281 4: 3180 
5: 3326 6: 3289 7: 3253 8: 3366 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 530 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 
chip-ID: 8086:191b class-ID: 0300 
Device-2: NVIDIA GM204M [GeForce GTX 970M] vendor: Dell driver: nvidia v: 465.27 
bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:13d8 class-ID: 0302 
Device-3: Sunplus Innovation Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-7:4 
chip-ID: 1bcf:2b8c class-ID: 0e02 
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: loaded: intel,nvidia 
unloaded: modesetting,nouveau alternate: fbdev,nv,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz s-dpi: 96 
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 530 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel 
v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a170 class-ID: 0403 
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.11.16-zen1-1-zen running: yes 
Sound Server-2: JACK v: 0.125.0 running: no 
Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.26 running: no 
Network:   Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2400 Gigabit Ethernet driver: alx v: kernel port: d000 
bus-ID: 3b:00.0 chip-ID: 1969:e0a1 class-ID: 0200 
IF: enp59s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Rivet Networks 
driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel port: d000 bus-ID: 3c:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:003e class-ID: 0280 
IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-5:3 chip-ID: 0cf3:e301 
class-ID: e001 
Report: bt-adapter ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: down bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block: 
hardware: no software: yes address: <filter> 
RAID:      Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci v: 3.0 port: f060 
bus-ID: 00:17.0 chip-ID: 8086.282a rev: 31 class-ID: 0104 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 990.99 GiB used: 21.11 GiB (2.1%) 
ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 vendor: SanDisk model: SL64G size: 59.48 GiB rotation: SSD serial: <filter> 
scheme: MBR 
ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM044 HN-M101SAD size: 931.51 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: 0001 scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 929.01 GiB used: 21.11 GiB (2.3%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda3 
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 696 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 
ID-3: /home size: 929.01 GiB used: 21.11 GiB (2.3%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda3 
ID-4: /var/log size: 929.01 GiB used: 21.11 GiB (2.3%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda3 
ID-5: /var/tmp size: 929.01 GiB used: 21.11 GiB (2.3%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda3 
Swap:      ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda2 
ID-2: swap-2 type: zram size: 1.94 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram0 
ID-3: swap-3 type: zram size: 1.94 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram1 
ID-4: swap-4 type: zram size: 1.94 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram2 
ID-5: swap-5 type: zram size: 1.94 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram3 
ID-6: swap-6 type: zram size: 1.94 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram4 
ID-7: swap-7 type: zram size: 1.94 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram5 
ID-8: swap-8 type: zram size: 1.94 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram6 
ID-9: swap-9 type: zram size: 1.94 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767 dev: /dev/zram7 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 55.0 C mobo: N/A 
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 277 Uptime: 9h 46m wakeups: 1 Memory: 15.5 GiB used: 5.54 GiB (35.7%) Init: systemd 
v: 248 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 clang: 11.1.0 Packages: pacman: 1506 Shell: fish v: 3.2.1 
running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.04 

rfkill list output

0: dell-rbtn: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
2: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
11: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

Installing linux and linux-lts again, just in case

During installation with sudo pacman -S linux I was thrown the following warnings during build hooks if relevant:

==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux-zen.preset: 'fallback'
-> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux-zen-fallback.img -S autodetect
==> Starting build: 5.11.16-zen1-1-zen
-> Running build hook: [base]
-> Running build hook: [udev]
-> Running build hook: [modconf]
-> Running build hook: [block]
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: aic94xx
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: wd719x
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: xhci_pci
-> Running build hook: [keyboard]
-> Running build hook: [keymap]
-> Running build hook: [consolefont]
-> Running build hook: [plymouth]
-> Running build hook: [filesystems]

Also in case it has any information, run sudo journalctl -f --no-pager in a terminal, then try connecting to wifi and see what output it presents.

If there’s anything about firmware, you could try an updated version using the instructions from here: Alienware 15 - ArchWiki until it’s included in the linux-firmware package.

They aren’t for hardware you have so you can ignore them (and you’d know if you have the hardware).

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$ journalctl -f --no-pager

-- Journal begins at Tue 2021-05-04 20:13:47 CDT. --
May 05 09:42:50 Blackbird ananicy[551]: renice: konsole[1267601/1267619] 0 -> -3
May 05 09:42:50 Blackbird ananicy[551]: renice: konsole[1267601/1267655] 0 -> -3
May 05 09:42:50 Blackbird ananicy[551]: renice: konsole[1267601/1267656] 19 -> -3
May 05 09:42:50 Blackbird ananicy[551]: renice: konsole[1267601/1267657] 19 -> -3
May 05 09:42:50 Blackbird ananicy[551]: renice: konsole[1267601/1267658] 19 -> -3
May 05 09:42:50 Blackbird ananicy[551]: renice: konsole[1267601/1267659] 19 -> -3
May 05 09:42:50 Blackbird ananicy[551]: renice: konsole[1267601/1267660] 0 -> -3
May 05 09:42:50 Blackbird ananicy[551]: renice: konsole[1267601/1267661] 0 -> -3
May 05 09:42:50 Blackbird ananicy[551]: renice: konsole[1267601/1267662] 0 -> -3
May 05 09:42:50 Blackbird ananicy[551]: renice: konsole[1267601/1267663] 0 -> -3

Attempted to enable wifi, output continued:

May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird audit[1265756]: USYS_CONFIG pid=1265756 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='op=statistics arg="refresh-rate-ms" pid=2775 uid=1000 result=success exe="/usr/bin/NetworkManager" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'                                                                                  
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kernel: audit: type=1111 audit(1620225783.576:897): pid=1265756 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='op=statistics arg="refresh-rate-ms" pid=2775 uid=1000 result=success exe="/usr/bin/NetworkManager" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird NetworkManager[1265756]: <info>  [1620225783.5780] audit: op="statistics" arg="refresh-rate-ms" pid=2775 uid=1000 result="success"
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29105, resource id: 41943236, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29106, resource id: 41943238, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29107, resource id: 41943240, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29108, resource id: 41943242, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29109, resource id: 41943228, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29375, resource id: 41943236, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29376, resource id: 41943238, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29377, resource id: 41943240, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29378, resource id: 41943242, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29379, resource id: 41943228, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29386, resource id: 41943236, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29387, resource id: 41943238, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29388, resource id: 41943240, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29389, resource id: 41943242, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:03 Blackbird kwin_x11[2689]: qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 9 (BadDrawable), sequence: 29390, resource id: 41943228, major code: 14 (GetGeometry), minor code: 0
May 05 09:43:06 Blackbird audit[1265756]: USYS_CONFIG pid=1265756 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='op=radio-control arg="wireless-enabled" pid=2775 uid=1000 result=success exe="/usr/bin/NetworkManager" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
May 05 09:43:06 Blackbird NetworkManager[1265756]: <info>  [1620225786.0385] audit: op="radio-control" arg="wireless-enabled" pid=2775 uid=1000 result="success"
May 05 09:43:06 Blackbird kernel: audit: type=1111 audit(1620225786.037:898): pid=1265756 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='op=radio-control arg="wireless-enabled" pid=2775 uid=1000 result=success exe="/usr/bin/NetworkManager"hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
May 05 09:43:07 Blackbird audit[1265756]: USYS_CONFIG pid=1265756 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='op=statistics arg="refresh-rate-ms" pid=2775 uid=1000 result=success exe="/usr/bin/NetworkManager" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
May 05 09:43:07 Blackbird NetworkManager[1265756]: <info>  [1620225787.7622] audit: op="statistics" arg="refresh-rate-ms" pid=2775 uid=1000 result="success"
May 05 09:43:07 Blackbird kernel: audit: type=1111 audit(1620225787.761:899): pid=1265756 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='op=statistics arg="refresh-rate-ms" pid=2775 uid=1000 result=success exe="/usr/bin/NetworkManager" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'

No change.

I will follow the Alienware ArchWiki instructions and return after reboot.

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$ wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA6174/hw3.0/2.0/board.bin
$ sudo mkdir -p /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/
$ sudo mv board.bin /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/

$ wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA6174/hw3.0/2.0/firmware-4.bin_WLAN.RM.2.0-00180-QCARMSWPZ-1
$ sudo mv firmware-4.bin_WLAN.RM.2.0-00180-QCARMSWPZ-1 /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/firmware-4.bin

$ reboot

Installing and moving the binary into my firmware library did not seem to solve the issue either.

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This kind of indicates the wireless is up and ready.

Is there anything special about the AP? Have you tried removing and re-adding the connection within Network Manager?

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I cannot tick the "Enable Wifi" checkbox under the Network Manager category of the top-right of my taskbar. If wireless is ready, then it seems we've been checking the circuit breaker when the lightswitch is the point of failure.

If I were able to tick that box, I'd likely be able to see my Access Point and connect (hopefully) without issue.

image

So just checking, there’s not a hardware wifi switch is there?

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FN+F2 on keyboard worked and I am able to connect, how do I uninstall my shameful existence next? Wow what a noobie move. Thank you regardless for all your effort!

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If all wifi issue diagnoses went as smoothly as this one everyone here would be very happy. :wink:

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